We just returned from our yearly 4th of July Long Beach outing and that means summer has finally started in the Pacific Northwest. We didn’t waste any time and started off summer with a fresh Dungeness crab dinner caught by Mike and Sam and turned all the left over crab into scrumptious crab cakes. I didn’t use to like crab cakes, they are usually either too breaded, too fishy or too over seasoned or all of the aforementioned.

My crab cakes are neither over breaded, over seasoned and for sure not fishy since the crab was just swimming in the ocean less than 24 hours ago. A lot of recipes call for Panko bread crumbs, I like to use Ritz crackers instead, never thought I would like the idea of “commercial crackers” in something so precious (and expensive) like crab cakes but you do not taste any breading/crackers in these crab cakes and that’s exactly how I like it. If you like breaded crab cakes, just add 2 cups of Panko or bread crumbs to the crab mixture instead of the Ritz crackers.

The last week was filled with fresh seafood feast, Mike made fresh regional (Willapa) Oyster Appetizers 2x, I ate delicious clams at my favorite Long Beach restaurant “The Pickled Fish” and had a fabulous Shrimp Louie in the small town of Ilwaco.

Long Beach never disappoints and this time we were spending lots of time with Mikes grandparents Dee and David.

We enjoyed lots of good food, from the above mentioned seafood, to southern comfort food (Biscuits and gravy, Hashbrown & chips casserole, old fashioned bread pudding with butter rum sauce) and German Sourdough bread and chocolate cake. 

All of this food should have made us run along the beach but we left that to Murphy and watched him kicking in the afterburners when chasing after his beloved ball.

When we weren’t cooking or eating, we spent lots of time at the beach watching the wildlife and playing with the puppies. The puppies love being at the ocean but clearly don’t like drinking from it hehe…

Now its back to the real life and catching up on email and prepping for next weeks business trip to Las Vegas – who wouldn’t want to spend an entire week in 103 Degree weather in business attire? If there is one good thing in Las Vegas, then its food, there are plenty of great restaurants in Las Vegas, I am hopeful I get to check out a few new ones on this trip.

I hope you are having a great start into summer and are enjoying all the fabulous bounty that the garden, farms and ocean has to offer and will give these crab cakes a try. Once you have the crabs cracked and cleaned, you can make these crab cakes in a breeze and if you half the actual size of the crab patties, they make for a great garden party appetizers.

Crab Cake Recipe: makes 12 crab cakes

Ingredients and Directions:

1. Beat 2 tablespoons Miracle with 1 egg until its all light and creamy
2. add it to 1 lb lump crab meat (from approx. 3 crabs)
3. now add the seasonings and Ritz crackers (between 15-20 crushed crackers)
4. 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp dry ground mustard, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning, a little bit of HOT sauce, 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
5. Make 12 little round lightly flat balls and fry 2 batches of 6 crab cakes each in oil (cover the bottom of a frying pan with oil) – 6 minutes from each side
6. Set crab cakes on paper towels to soak up any left over oil
7. Serve crab cakes on a bed of lettuce with fresh bread and chipotle mayo or aioli

Guten Appetit